Speakers

Officiating Speech

Opening Keynote

His Excellency Dato Ahmad Rasidi Bin Hazizi

Malaysia’s High Commissioner

A career ambassador, London is his eighth posting and his fourth as Head of Mission. His first European appointment, Dato Ahmad Rasidi is here with his wife and 12-year-old son, who is the youngest of their five boys.

Growing up with eight siblings (seven brothers and a sister), Dato Ahmad Rasidi was the only one to pursue a carreer in the Foreign Service. In his younger years, he was posted to the US, Turkey, Indonesia and as Malaysia’s Consul General in Hong Kong during the handover. His first Ambassadorial posting was in Laos (2004-06), coinciding with the country hosting the ASEAN Summit in November 2004. This was followed by a stint as Ambassador to the Philippines (2006-09).

Before the current posting, he was Ambassador of Malaysia to the Kazakhstan, following a couple of years as Chief of Protocol for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2009-11). There he oversaw Malaysia’s involvement the World Islamic Economic Forum in November 2011.

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His Excellency Dato Ahmad Rasidi Bin Hazizi
High Commissioner of Malaysia to the UK

Attila Emam

Group Head of Risk & Government Relations, AirAsia

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Attila Emam
Group Head of Risk & Government Relations, Air Asia

Politics-Security Session

His Excellency Sayakane Sisouvong

Laos Ambassador to the UK;
Former Deputy Secretary General for ASEAN PoliticalSecurity 2009-2014

His Excellency Sayakane Sisouvong is the Lao Ambassador to the United Kingdom. Prior to being the Ambassador, he was the Deputy Secretary General for ASEAN Political Security Community since February 2009. Prior to this position he had been the Ambassador-at-Large from 2007-2009 and senior official for ASEAN Political Affairs at the Laos Senior Official Meeting. Before this he held various positions within the Laos Ministry of Foreign Affairs as Director General of the ASEAN department from 1998-2007, Deputy Director General of the ASEAN department from 1996-1998, Director of the ASEAN Division, Asia-Pacific and Africa Department from 1995-1996, and Director of the North America Division, Europe and America Department from 1991-1993. Prior to this he had worked in the Laos’ Embassy to the United States as Second Secretary from 1986 to 1991.

His Excellency Sayakane Sisouvong holds two Masters’ degrees in International Relations from Australia National University in Canberra, and Linguistics from Universidad Central de Las Villas, Cuba, as well as a graduate diploma in Foreign Affairs and Trade from ANU and studied at Thammasat University in Thailand.

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His Excellency Sayakane Sisouvong
Laos Ambassador to the UK;
Former Deputy Secretary General for ASEAN Political Security 2009-2014

Professor Duncan McCargo

Professor of Political Science at the University of Leeds;
President of European Association for Southeast Asian Studies

Duncan McCargo is the Professor of Southeast Asian politics at the University of Leeds. He has a visiting affiliation at the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University, and is an associate fellow at New York’s Asia Society. McCargo is best known for his work on the politics of Thailand, on which he is one of the world’s leading scholars. McCargo’s research has covered electoral politics, the political role of the media, the military and politics, the career of Thaksin Shinawatra, and most recently the ongoing insurgency in Southern Thailand, where he done extensive fieldwork.

A regular visitor to Asia, he has also researched in Cambodia, Japan and Singapore, and has written on Indonesia and Vietnam. McCargo has published nine books, including The Thaksinization of Thailand (with Ukrist Pathmanand, NIAS 2005), and Tearing Apart the Land: Islam and Legitimacy in Southern Thailand (Cornell, 2008), which won the inaugural 2009 Bernard Schwartz book Prize from Asia Society.

McCargo often provides live commentary for the BBC and other leading broadcasters; while his oped and analysis pieces have appeared in the print editions of Time magazine, The Daily Telegraph, The Economist, The Guardian, The Independent, and more than a dozen other newspapers, in five different languages. He has authored studies of governance and human rights issues in Thailand and Cambodia for the Freedom House Countries at the Crossroads project.

A triple graduate of the University of London, McCargo holds a PhD in Politics from the School of Oriental and African Studies. He was awarded an honorary doctorate in Thai studies by Mahasarakham University, Thailand, in 2010. The following year he was elected to the Academy of Social Sciences. He is also the elected President (2013–15) of the European Association for Southeast Asian Studies (EuroSEAS) – the world’s largest academic organisation for the study of the region.

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Professor Duncan McCargo
Professor of Political Science at the University of Leeds;
President of European Association for Southeast Asian Studies

Nicola Stewart

Nicola Stewart is currently working as a Research Analyst covering Southeast Asia in the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Until recently she headed one of the Southeast Asian political teams in the FCO, covering Indonesia, Singapore, Cambodia, Laos, Brunei, East Timor and ASEAN and ASEM issues. Stewart was posted in Jakarta from 2008-2012 and first spent time living in Indonesia in 1990. Before joining the FCO in 2002, she worked in Southern Africa and Nepal and studied at SOAS and Oxford University

Economics Session

Dr. Gerard Lyons

Chief Economic Adviser,Mayor of London

Gerard Lyons was formerly Chief Economist and Group Head of Global Research at StandardChartered. He is a recognised expert on the global and UK economy, and during his 13 years at Standard Chartered held a range of senior roles on the bank’s committees. He was previously Chief Economist and Executive Director at DKB International and Chief UK Economist at Swiss Bank Corporation.

He has been a regular speaker at major domestic and world financial conferences and meetings, including the annual meeting of the IMF, the annual and spring meetings of the Institute for International Finance, the World Economic Forum in Davos, and many high profile events here in the UK.

He is a respected forecaster on the global economy. In August 2008, the month before the collapse of Lehman Brothers, he was one of only two UK economists then predicting an imminent deep recession for the UK, forecasting a GDP fall of 1.6 per cent versus a consensus rise of 0.9 per cent. He was ranked number one forecaster globally by Bloomberg (out of over 360) in 2010 and 2011. In December 2011, against the consensus, he predicted both the UK and euro area would be in recession last year.

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Dr. Gerard Lyons
Chief Economic Adviser, Mayor of London

Professor Danny Quah

Professor of Economics and International Development, and Director of the Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre,London School of Economics and Political Science

Danny Quah is Professor of Economics and International Development, and Director of the Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science and Tan Chin Tuan Visiting Professor at the National University of Singapore.

Quah calls The Great Shift East the move in the world’s economic center of gravity out of the mid-Atlantic location where it had been for most of the 19th and 20th centuries, pulled by the rise of economies in the east. Between 1980 and 2010 that economic center of gravity moved 5,000 km east, to the Persian Gulf, on a trajectory that continues to take it towards the boundary between India and China.

Quah obtained his Ph.D. from Harvard University under Thomas Sargent in 1986 and his A.B. from Princeton University in 1980. He worked as assistant professor of economics at MIT before joining the Economics Department at LSE in 1991. Quah was, for 2006–2009, Head of the Economics Department at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Quah has served previously as Council Member on Malaysia’s National Economic Advisory Council and as Consultant for the Bank of England, the World Bank, and the Monetary Authority of Singapore. Quah has also worked as visiting assistant professor of economics at Harvard University, and visiting Professor of Economics at Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management and at the Nanyang Technological University of Singapore.

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Professor Danny Quah
Professor of Economics and International Development, and Director of the Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre,
London School of Economics and Political Science

Korn Chatikavanij

Chairman of Thailand Democrat Party Policy Unit
Former Finance Minister of Thailand 2008-2011

Korn Chatikavanij is currently chairman of Thailand Democrat Party Policy Unit. Korn served as Finance Minister of the Kingdom of Thailand from 2008 to 2011. Previously, he was president and chairman of JP Morgan Securities (Thailand) from 2000-2004.

Much of Korn Chatikavanij’s career was spent in the finance sector since his early age at SG Warburg, London. He then co-founded JF Thanakom Securities with Jardine Fleming and was its president for 11 years. After the merger of Jardine Fleming and JP Morgan, he became president and subsequently chairman of JP Morgan Securities (Thailand). He left to run for Bangkok Member of Parliament in October 2004.

In December 2009, Korn Chatikavanij received “Global Finance Minister of the Year 2010” and “Asia-Pacific Finance Minister of the Year 2010” awards from the Banker (an affiliated publication of the Financial Times).

Korn Chatikavanij graduated with BA (Hons) in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) from St. John’s College, University of Oxford.

Sociocultural Session

Dr. Dessy Irawati FERSA

Full-time executive consultant and Business Representative of BNI (Bank Negara Indonesia) 1946 Bank in the NetherlandsCEO and founder of eduPRIME, an education and research consulting based in Tilburg, the NetherlandsPresident for I-4 (The International Association of Indonesian Scientists) for 2013-2015 period which involves more than 500 Indonesian scientists across the globe

Dr Irawati FeRSA gained her Ph.D in International Business Strategy and Economic Geography from Newcastle University Business School, UK. She was granted the prestigous fellowship-FERSA from Regional Studies Association in 2011. Her MSc postgraduate was Innovation, Creativity, and Entrepreneurship also from Newcastle University. Specifically, her disciplinary background lies in International Business Strategy, Economic Geography, and Regional Studies. She explores why some regions have a better economic performance than others and argues that this is because they encourage knowledge creation in the global-local networks more than other regions.

Furthermore, she has researched and taught international business management, investigating overlaps with the fields of strategy, organisation, and learning. Alongside this, she continues to develop her research interests on innovation and regional development in knowledge-based economy, specifically in the context of agglomeration, industries, and networks. Her extended research interests are: international business strategy, multinational enterprises (MNEs), small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), innovation and technology management, globalisation and development studies, cluster- based policy and networks, industrial dynamics and knowledge transfer.

Dr. Irawati has presented papers in Europe and other international venues as a guest speaker, invited scholar, and scientific conference speaker. She has published books, journals, e‐journals and conference proceedings at international level. Irawati is active in promoting the importance of academic writing workshop, peer review and supervision among junior researchers and PhD students internationally in her role as chair of a scientific committee and a member of scientific panels for several international conferences/workshops. Currently she is involved in a new research network called SDIN (Social Dynamics of Innovation Networks) promoting the norms, values and human element in studying innovation in developed and developing economies, specifically in Europe and the ASEAN (Southeast Asian) region.

In addition, the following information for her teaching and research activities:

Research Interest:

Effective international strategic planning for organization

International strategy formulation (for MNEs and SMEs)

International strategy implementation (for MNEs and SMEs)

International strategy evaluation (for MNEs and SMEs)

Overlapping research theme including:

Globalisation and Emerging Economies

Social Dynamic of Innovation Networks (SDIN)

Knowledge Transfer and Technology Management

Corporate Social Responsibility and green economy as an ethical and strategic challenges/process in managing sustainability

Dr. Dessy Irawati FERSA
Full-time executive consultant and Business Representative of BNI (Bank Negara Indonesia)
CEO and founder of eduPRIME
President for I-4

Dr. Janet Cochrane

Senior Research Fellow,School of Events, Tourism and HospitalityLeeds Beckett University

Janet has lived and worked in many parts of the world, particularly South East Asia, and is well able to adapt to multi-cultural situations. Over the last 30 years she has worked in overseas development, broadcasting and the tourism industry, becoming a full-time academic in 2004. She has a strong background in training for tourism, particularly rural tourism and ecotourism, and has achieved considerable success in fundraising for community projects. In 2011 Janet brought her skills and interests together by establishing a social enterprise which develops and promotes leisure horse-riding to people with or without their own horses, with a particular focus on increasing income to the rural economy and widening participation in riding.

Janet’s current research interests are concerned with understanding the social and economic costs and benefits of World Heritage Sites in South East Asia, as part of a multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional team funded by the British Academy and other partners. She is also implementing an equestrian research project with a colleague from Leeds Beckett University, with a particular focus on understanding market aspects of leisure equestrianism and ensuring the findings are fed back into rural strategy.

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Dr. Janet Cochrane
Senior Research Fellow,
School of Events, Tourism and Hospitality
Leeds Beckett University

Dr. Alice M. Nah

Research and Teaching FellowCenter for Applied Human RightsUniversity of York

Dr Alice M. Nah is a Research and Teaching Fellow at the Centre for Applied Human Rights, University of York. She conducts research on migration and asylum in Asia as well as the security of human rights defenders at risk. She has previously published in peer-reviewed journals such as the Asian Journal of Social Sciences, Journal of Human Rights Practice, Australian Journal of Human Rights, and Urban Studies. She is a Co-Convenor of the British Sociological Association’s Sociology of Rights Study Group. She also works closely with civil society organisations and networks, serving as the Vice President of the International Detention Coalition and Advisor to the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network.

Before joining CAHR, Alice held an Endeavour Cheung Kong Research Fellowship at Monash University, Melbourne; the prestigious President’s Graduate Fellowship and research scholarships at the National University of Singapore; as well as a visiting fellowship with the Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford.

Alice gained her PhD at the National University of Singapore, where she also completed a Master of Social Science. She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Leeds as a Chevening Scholar.

Alice is actively involved in a number of transnational civil society networks. She is the Vice President of the International Detention Coalition, a Co-coordinator of the Migration Working Group of Malaysia, and a member of the Steering Committee of the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network (serving as its previous Chair).

She serves as a Board Member of the International Sociological Association’s Thematic Group on Global Justice and Human Rights.

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Dr. Alice M Nah
Research and Teaching Fellow
Center for Applied Human Rights
University of York

Sinapan Samydorai

Convenor-Consultant, Task Force on ASEAN Migrant Workers

Sinapan Samydorai is the Convenor-Consultant of the Task Force on ASEAN Migrant Workers (TFAMW). In 2006, he was among the regional civil society leaders from across the Southeast Asia, who played a key role in the formation of the Task Force on ASEAN Migrant Workers to engage with the relevant ASEAN processes, by providing people-centred recommendations to the ASEAN member states on the drafting of the ASEAN Charter, the ASEAN Declaration of the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers, and the building of the ASEAN community.

He is currently the Director of ASEAN Affairs, Think Centre, actively contributes to the promotion and protection of human rights in the region, and until 2009, was the focal point in Singapore for the Working Group for ASEAN Human Rights Mechanism. Think Centre is an independent non-governmental organization based in Singapore that aims to examine issues related to political awareness and development, democracy, human rights, rule of law, economy and civil society. He was also one of the founding members of Think Centre and was its President from 2001 – 2009. He now mentors the next generation of office bearers on strategic matters and actively contributing to build the ASEAN portfolio of the organisation.

Before becoming Convenor-Consultant to Task Force on ASEAN Migrant Workers he served as Executive Committee Member of both Forum-Asia (ASEAN Forum on Human Rights and Development) and the Migrant Forum in Asia. Prior to that he was the Project Coordinator of the Hong Kong based Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) from 1995-1999 and the Asian Center for the Progress of Peoples (ACPP) from 1992-1994.

He had earlier from 1987 to 1991 worked for regional faith-based organisations on training young workers to build capacity as leaders in their organisations and to protect the rights of workers. From 1980 – 1987, he served the needs of migrant workers through involvement in a faith-based organisation based within an industrial estate in Singapore. Since 1980s, Samydorai has been working on labour rights, migrant worker rights, and human rights.

Task Force on ASEAN Migrant Workers (TFAMW)

The Task Force on ASEAN Migrant Workers (TFAMW) is a regional platform for civil society organizations (CSOs) working on the protection and promotion of the rights of migrant workers to engage the ASEAN Member States (AMS).

The TFAMW together with the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) ‘ASEAN Triangle Project’, consult civil society organizations working on migrant worker issues in ASEAN countries to better protect and promote migrant workers’ rights by implementing the ASEAN Declaration on the protection and promotion of the rights of the migrant workers. The TFAMW facilitates CSO engagement with the ASEAN Committee on Migrant Workers (ACMW) representatives from the 10 AMS.

TFAMW also co-organizes the ASEAN Forum on Migrant Labour (AFML) with the ASEAN Secretariat, the ACMW, the ILO Triangle Project and other UN agencies to coordinate civil society participation in the AFML to engage concerned stakeholders. In 2009, the Task Force on ASEAN Migrant Workers (TFAMW) Civil Society proposal – ASEAN Framework Instrument on the protection and promotion of the rights of migrant workers – was delivered to the ASEAN Secretariat and the ACMW to support the drafting of the ASEAN Framework Instrument on the rights of Migrant Workers.

Corporate Session

Special Address

Dr Mohammad Nazir OBE

Dr Mohammad Nazir OBE is currently serving as a director and CEO of a fast growing International Halal brand, his role is to create first ever totally integrated Halal supply chain in Europe.

He has a varied background from setting up new businesses, investing in leading edge business, serving on several strategy and business policy boards in the UK and Internationally.

Amongst many varied roles he has been actively involved in International trade development working with UKTI to activity promote Bi-lateral trade between British business and businesses located within the Asean region. He chaired the UKTI diversity project which resulted in major boost of trade within the Asean region. For 10 years he chaired the West Midlands Ethnic Minority Business Forum.

He has served on many boards, including the national ministerial business forum, European Youth Enterprise Board and West Midlands Business Council. He has supported many initiatives focused on inward investment and job creation. During the credit crunch crisis he served on the Council of Economic Advisors (setup by the Prime Minister) chaired by the regional Ministers. Recently he was appointed vice chair onto the board of the West Midlands Strategic Health Authority where he also chaired the quality and performance board.

Since 1995 he has been managing his successful International business development consultancy practice, Nazir Associates, based in the UK servicing the private, public and social enterprise sectors.

In 2010 he was awarded the OBE by Her Majesty the Queen for “Services to Business”.

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Dr. Mohammad Nazir OBE
CEO, Ghanim International UK Ltd.

Datuk SK Lingam

President of ASEAN UK Business Forum (AUBF)

Chairman of Malaysian Link UK (MLUK)

Senior Vice president Friends of Barisan Nasional UK

Datuk SK Lingam (SK) is an International corporate consultant. He was the first Chairman of the ASEAN UK Business Forum (AUBF) , a forum which was initiated 17 years ago by the then, their Excellencies the Ambassadors and High Commissioners of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) to the Court of St James’s. He remained elected & unopposed Chairman of AUBF since its inception & now it’s President.

In April 2000 SK was acknowledged with a book on ASEAN by the author of the book the then Secretary General of ASEAN His Excellency Rudolfo Severino with His Excellency’s appreciation remarks “To SK, an ASEAN asset in the UK_”. In 2008 as an acknowledgement of SK’s ten (10) years service to the ASEAN UK Business Forum (AUBF), the Secretary General of ASEAN His Excellency OngKeng Yong awarded SK with an appreciation plaque for his excellent services.

Further SK was the immediate former First Vice President of ASEAN – EU Business Network, based in Brussels.AEBN was launched by the then EU Trade Commissioner & The Rt. Hon. George Yeo, the then Singapore Minister of Trade & Industry. SK was the founding and former member of Malaysia UK Association (MUKA) and The Focus Malaysia Group (FMG) in London. SK is currently the founding member and first Chairman of Malaysian Link UK (MLUK) till present. Aside this SK is the Senior Vice President of Friends of BarisanNasional(FBNUK)- The FBN UK was launched at the House of Lords on the 14th May 2012 by the Prime Minister of Malaysia, The Hon. Dato Seri NajibRazak, who is the Patron of the Friends of Barisan Nasional UK.

In recognition of his services to his native heath (Malaysia) in 2014 SK was acknowledged by His Majesty,the King of Malaysia with an award of the title “Datuk” akin to the British knighthood which carries the title “Sir.”

SK has given many public addresses in the UK, Europe and in ASEAN on EU,UK & ASEAN political, legal, socio economic and trade matters. He has also acted as moderator in many trade seminars, dialogue sessions and conferences both in the UK and in ASEAN. SK has also appeared on various TV channels including on the BBC.

SK has also in the past held the position of Chairman and President of various UK community based charities such as the Melting Pot Foundation, the Afro Asian Rehabilitation Centre, the West Indians Women Association to mention a few.

Soksamphoas Im Meas

Currently a Postgraduate candidate in Defence, Development and Diplomacy at Durham University, UK and a Civil Society Leadership Scholar associate with Open Society Foundations. She graduated a joint Bachelor’s Degree in Politics and International Relations from Paññasastra University, Cambodia and University of Leuven, Belgium. Apart from these, she also holds a Diploma in Diplomatic Studies from the European Academy of Diplomacy.

Prior to AYLA, Soksamphoas was working with various international and local NGOs in Cambodia concerning from primary education development sector to human rights protection. She was the Co-founder of a local NGO in Cambodia called Hope for Happiness Center in 2010 and was a Project Officer at Action Pour Les Enfants organization from 2013 -2014. She was appointed as a judge at a National Debating and Public Speaking Championship in 2014 organized by the Junior Chamber International – Cambodia.

Moderators

Dr. Catherine Jones

East Asia Post-Doctoral Research FellowDepartment of Politics and International Studies, University of Warwick

To date the majority of her research has centred around her recently submitted thesis entitled: ‘China and the Liberal International Order: How is the Rise of China Challenging the norms and practices of the Liberal International Order?’ The thesis focuses on China’s engagement with international institutions particularly focusing attention on the ideological dimension of the challenge that China is supposed to present. Specifically, it looked at China’s role in debates on: Sovereignty at the UN (including the development of the Responsibility to Protect); and International Development (including the China’s role at Busan and the potential effects for the international development architecture). The PhD was generously funded by the Leverhulme Trust through its Liberal Way of War Program at the University of Reading.

Moving forwards, she intends to explore the construction (or reconstruction) of the concepts of ‘security’ and ‘development’ in response to the rise of China and Asia as a region. In particular this will involve a deeper exploration of the changing development and aid architectures and the process of determining what happens to the Millennium Development Goals in 2015.

Her research interests include China’s roles in international institutions, normative and ideological change, East Asian regionalism and changing global order especially agency of rising powers and region in shaping global order.

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Dr. Catherine Jones
East Asia Post-Doctoral Research Fellow
Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Warwick

Dr. Lena Rethel

Associate Professor of International Political EconomyDepartment of Politics and International Studies, University of Warwick

She joined PAIS in August 2011 and is now Associate Professor of International Political Economy. Her research interests are concentrated in the broad areas of the Political Economy of Finance and Southeast Asian politics. Conceptually, this includes the Relationship between Finance and Development, Financialisation and the Politics of Debt, Alternative Globalisations and the Disciplinary Parameters and Spatial Location of Contemporary IPE, to name just a few of my interests. Substantively, her work so far has concentrated on both the theories and common senses that underpin financial policymaking, the question of how this leads to institutional change (in particular the expansion of capital markets) and the socio-economic implications of these changes. She has focused on developments in the Southeast Asia region. Currently, she is working on a range of projects that explore the relationship between financial system change and development, trajectories of emerging market debt and the emergence of Islamic finance.

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Dr. Lena Rethel
Associate Professor of International Political Economy
Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Warwick

Dr. Juanita Elias

Associate Professor in International Political EconomyDepartment of Politics and International Studies, University of Warwick

Juanita Elias is Associate Professor in International Political Economy. She was educated at the University of Manchester (BA (Hons) Politics and Modern History – first class) and the University of Warwick (MA International Political Economy; PhD Politics and International Studies). She joins Warwick University from Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia, where she held an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (2010-2013).

She has published her work in journals such as International Political Sociology, Economy and Society, Third World Quarterly, Review of International Political Economy, International Feminist Journal of Politics and The Pacific Review. She is the author of Fashioning Inequality: The Multinational Firm and Gendered Employment in a Globalising World (2004), co-editor of the book The Global Political Economy of The Household in Asia (2013) and co-author of the textbook International Relations: The Basics (2007).

Her research interests include: International Political Economy, Gendered approaches to the Study of International Political Economy and Globalisation, the Household in Global Political Economy, Political Economy of Malaysia and Labour Migration in Southeast Asia.

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Dr. Juanita Elias
Associate Professor in International Political Economy
Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Warwick